The identification of the 'Portrait of Ferrante Imperato' in the Museo dell'Orto Botanico of Pisa as a very early, high-quality copy of a lost original by Tanzio da Varallo prompts a review of the circle of patrons of the painter from Valsesia during his long sojourn in Naples and, above all, the favour he enjoyed among contemporaries. If Imperato was indeed one of the most prominent figures on the cultural and scientific scene in Naples between the 16th and 17th century, it is quite plausible that in another portrait by Tanzio, one of the most intense of the Italian Seicento, the sitter can be identified as Juan Alonso Pimentel de Herrera, conde-duque of Benavente, viceroy of Naples from 1603 to 1610 and great patron of Caravaggio. With the re-examination of the painter's artistic production in Naples – of which very few pieces survive –, and his important personal acquaintances and circle of patrons, which was essentially the same as Merisi's, one is increasingly convinced that at a certain time Tanzio, after Caravaggio, shared equally with Battistello Caracciolo the title of leading painter in Naples. There follow elucidations regarding the attribution to the Valsesian artist of the altarpiece from the collegiate church of Varallo representing 'Saint Gregory between Saints Nicholas of Bari and Pantaleon' – published in this journal in 2015 – and reference to a remarkable unpublished panel with 'Christ Crowned with Thorns' in a private collection, datable to much later than the Neapolitan period.